UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No Republican has won the hearts and minds of the Republican base.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is Tim Pawlenty right now? Because Tim Pawlenty, he would be the guy you turn to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O`DONNELL: Today was a good day for the Obama re-election campaign. But it was a tough day for the Democratic Party.

The good news for the Obama campaign is that the Republicans running for president continue to savage each other. Newt Gingrich is saying the worst things he can think of about Mitt Romney comparing him to Ted Kennedy. Romney is comparing Gingrich to Lucille Ball.

An influential conservative columnist Bill Kristol is now officially begging someone, anyone, to run for the Republican nomination for president.

As the Republicans continue to attack each other, they continue to drive up the negatives of every Republican running for president -- something Newt Gingrich had always insisted Republicans should not do, right up until he started doing it himself.

As President Obama`s re-election continues to look more likely with the help of the Republicans, his ability to govern in a second term was hurt today when it became a bit more likely that those same Republicans will take control of the United States Senate next year.

Senator Ben Nelson, the Democrat from Nebraska, where Democrats are an endangered species made this announcement today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: It`s time for me to step away from elective office, spend more time with my family and look for new ways to serve our state and nation. Therefore, I`m announcing today that I will not seek re-election. Simply put, it`s time to move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Nelson, who won re-election in 2006 with a miraculous 64 percent of the Nebraska vote, will be virtually impossible for the Democrats to replace in Nebraska. In fact, the situation is so hopeless in Nebraska that the Democrats are looking to New York for a solution. That is where Bob Kerrey, former Democratic governor of Nebraska and former senator from Nebraska who held Nelson`s seat before him now lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Former Nebraska Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey is considering a run. You know, you mentioned the word difficult. It was going to be very difficult for Democrats to hold on to this seat had Nelson stayed and run for re-election. It`s going to be difficult for them to still be able to win it, probably even harder. But if they can get someone like Bob Kerrey, at least it makes it competitive for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: I called Bob Kerrey as soon as the Ben Nelson news broke today. It took him a few seconds to understand what I was calling about since it turned out I had awakened him at 2:00 a.m. in India.

He said he would love to move back to Nebraska, that he`s often thought about moving back to Nebraska. He`s thought about it lately. But he has not thought about planning a race for the Senate there, which we were at the last -- so which means that THE LAST WORD here, we officially interpret as at least at 2:00 in the morning in India, while half awake, Bob Kerrey is leaving the door open.

Bob Kerrey also said he thought Ben Nelson`s retirement was a big loss for Nebraska.

That was not exactly the sentiment of a Senate Democratic leadership aide who told NBC News, quote, "Nelson will be the least missed member of the Democratic caucus next year."

That certainly echoes the feelings of many liberals who have been frustrated with his unreliability as a supporter of the Democratic leadership`s agenda in the Senate. But there would be non-Democratic leadership agenda in the Senate if the Democrats were not the majority party.

The last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, had two Democrats in the Senate from the Nebraska when he began his term. The President Obama was lucky to have even one. Ben Nelson cast the most important vote that a senator can cast when he voted for this man for majority leader.

Ben Nelson has voted with the Democrats 82 percent of the time this year. The Republican senator from Nebraska has voted with the Democrats 8 percent of the time this year. That is what`s at stake in Democrats holding on in any way they can to that Nebraska Senate seat. A Nebraska Democrat cannot possibly vote like a New York Democrat in the Senate and expect to hold on to that seat.

If Bob Kerrey doesn`t run for that seat, Nebraska is virtually certain to elect another Republican to the Senate who will vote for Mitch McConnell for majority leader and vote against the Democratic agenda, if there is one -- at least 90 percent of the time.

As frustrated as liberals have a right to be with Ben Nelson, they also have much to thank Ben Nelson for. Such is the complexity of the politics of governing. Ben Nelson managed to hold on to a Democratic Senate seat in a state where George W. Bush beat John Kerry by 33 points, in a state where John McCain beat Barack Obama by the 15 points.

Republicans were always desperate to get Ben Nelson out of the Democratic majority in the Senate. In 2004, before the Democrats got the majority, Karl Rove saw it coming, and he offered Ben Nelson the job of agriculture secretary. That would have allowed Nebraska`s Republican governor to pick Nelson`s replacement, giving the Republicans a Senate seat. Ben Nelson turned it down.

If Ben Nelson had accepted that job, in 2006, Democrats would have fallen exactly one seat short of winning control of the Senate, Ben Nelson`s seat.

In 2012, the Republicans need to pick up just four Senate seats to win back control of the Senate if they can hold on to all 10 of their incumbent Republican Senate seats. The Democrats now have eight difficult seats to defend, including Nebraska.

The Republicans only need to win half of those seats. Mitch McConnell`s road to majority leader just got a little bit easier today, and the prospects of President Obama being able to govern in a second term got a little bit harder today.

Karen, speak to this question of the complexity of the politics of governing versus the politics of campaigning. In campaigning, you can just leave the opponent, you know, dead by the side of the road. But the complexity in the politics of governing is the person who is in your way today may be your ally tomorrow, which is something that Harry Reid always knew about Ben Nelson. Yes, he`s not with me on this vote today but he`s with me most of the time.

That`s something that it seems to me the retail consumer of our politics out there viewers of this show and others have trouble grasping.

KAREN FINNEY, MSNBC ANALYST: You know, people understand it, they just don`t like it.

O`DONNELL: Yes, there`s that. Yes.

FINNEY: But just don`t get that like in the building behind me, as we well know, that`s how it is. If we want to change that, then there are some other things that we could be doing.

But absolutely. I mean, think about the number of times, I mean, it`s true, when you think about Joe Lieberman, right? It`s sort of like we hate the fact that we need him, but the truth is, we need him to caucus with the Democrats to get us to the numbers we need to get to be in the majority.

I think, though, with regard to Ben Nelson specifically, while obviously him voting for the health care legislation and certain other things, you know, you mentioned 82 percent is helpful -- I don`t think the math actually changes all that much either for the Democrats or the Republicans in the DSCC or the NRSC. In that, I think the Republicans were expecting this was going to be a pickup for them. I think it was always going to be a hard seat for Democrats.

The one thing in the math that I think is potentially helpful is that we`ve got Ben Nelson sitting on $3 million that could be used towards whoever the Democrat might be. I think it may be an ugly Republican primary. I still think, though, it`s going to be a very tough seat for Democrats to hold on to. And it means, you know what, we`ve got to start looking other places and not just worrying and thinking about what can we hold on to, but how do we actually change the nature of the map a little bit.

O`DONNELL: Absolutely. The map really has to be studied now.

Richard, I would think that I see a difference between the Ben Nelsons of the Democratic Party and the Joe Liebermans. Let`s remember, Joe Lieberman, to hold on to his seat, needed to get re-elected in that right wing state of Connecticut, where getting re-elected for a Democrat is a whole different ball game than getting re-elected in Nebraska.

And so, the passes I`d be willing to give to a Ben Nelson or a Nebraska or a Montana senator, say, in order for them to hold on to their seat are different from the way I`d feel about a Connecticut senator.

RICHARD WOLFFE, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Then there`s another factory you`ve got to put in there as well, which is the personal politics. Joe Lieberman has had what you can only describe as a personal problem with Barack Obama. And that`s played out in his votes and how difficult he`s been for his president.

Ben Nelson, and this may seem strange, but Ben Nelson back in 2006 would only invite one Democrat to the campaign with him. Not many people know this, but that one Democrat was actually Barack Obama. And the time when he was seen as a centrist moderate in the party, Nelson was very happy to be seen even though -- let`s face it -- there`s not a lot of diversity in the Nebraska but he was very happy to campaign with him, got a big event, a big response.

And obviously, people`s attitudes in Nebraska to President Obama have shifted over the years. And Nelson was going to face re-election fight with some of the nice things he had said about the president thrown back in his face. But that personal politics meant that he also had some leeway I think with this White House because he had been good to Obama and Lieberman hadn`t. That`s another big contrast between the two of them.

O`DONNELL: Karen, am I wrong to be feeling more confident about the president`s re-election as the Republicans continue to attack each other and less confident about Harry Reid`s ability to hold on to a Democratic Senate?

FINNEY: I think we don`t yet know what the story of the Senate is going to be. I`m actually a little bit more optimistic. I agree with you that I think that the president`s re-election prospects continue to look better every day that the Republicans put their faces on television and open their mouths to talk. So, certainly that has been helpful.

But I think with regard to the Senate -- I mean, you know, again, I think that we have to kind of pay attention to what`s going on with voters. I feel like one of the lessons I learned last time after 20 years in politics, during the 2008 cycle, is that voters are very unpredictable. I think they will again this cycle be unpredictable. They`re angry. They`re frustrated.

When people are angry and frustrated, they do things that are not predicted all the time by polls. And so, I think we`re going to have to pay closer attention.

One thing I will say when it comes to the Senate race and just in general, the idea that we`re talking about Bob Kerrey, I have great respect for him, but I think it shows the wholly shameful inadequacy that my party has done in actually developing talent further down the bench. We should not be talking about somebody who hasn`t lived in the state for 10 years as a way to try to hold onto the leadership in the Senate.

O`DONNELL: Absolutely. It seems it`s always that way for the Democrats, when one of these vacancies opens, there`s a sense of panic. And because they haven`t done that homework you`re talking about.

Richard, and the stakes for President Obama are high. A Republican Senate loses Pat Leahy as the guy who`s running your Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices and replaces him with Jeff Sessions who I don`t think he -- I don`t even know if he would give the president`s nominees a hearing.

WOLFFE: Well, you`ve got to assume that the honeymoon lasts for a couple days at least.

But, hey, this president had a hard time getting many nominees through a Democratically controlled Senate for all sorts of extraneous tax issues. Some of them serious and some of them are really not serious at all.

So, it is unpredictable. But, you know, let`s also not underestimate the Republicans` abilities to shoot themselves in the foot here. Harry Reid was looking at a terrible set of prospects in the last election. The Republicans chose a Tea Party candidate, a Jim DeMint-backed candidate in Nebraska. That could also come back and hurt them.

So, very hard at this point to say, OK, we know where this is going because Nevada looked horrible for Democrats two years ago.

FINNEY: You know --

O`DONNELL: Thank you, Richard Wolffe, for that sign of hope. I forgot about the Tea Party`s ability to throw the away Republican wins in the Senate.

Karen Finney, Richard Wolffe, thank you both very much for joining me tonight.

WOLFFE: Thanks, Lawrence.

FINNEY: Thanks.

O`DONNELL: Remember Newt Gingrich`s promise to run a positive presidential campaign? Big surprise, it`s all over for him. And that`s coming up next.

And the blacklist that tried to rewrite the story of Hollywood, the truth has won out. For the writers of one Oscar winning classic. That`s going to be in tonight`s "Rewrite."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTORUM: There`s only one thing better than knocking a bird down. It`s watching your son knock a bird down. So, that was -- this was his first hunt. So, it was pretty exciting to be out here.

REPORTER: Strong tradition?

SANTORUM: It was great. It was great. Yes. We enjoyed it and he got shotguns for Christmas and so, this was a little good practice for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O`DONNELL: With the Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Ron Paul campaigns and super PAC spending millions to flood Iowa televisions with attack ads against Newt Gingrich, Newt has decided the time has come to violate his pledge to run a positive campaign. Today in Iowa, Newt responded to an attack ad from the Romney campaign that called Newt, of all people, an unreliable conservative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: To have somebody who was a Massachusetts moderate, who said he did not want to go back to the Reagan, Bush years, who voted as a Democrat for Paul Tsongas in `92, who campaigned to the left of Teddy Kennedy, who as recently as running for governor said, "I`m really sort of a moderate pragmatic guy" -- to have him run a commercial that questions my conservativism?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Newt`s counterattack follows a report from "The Wall Street Journal" today revealing that in April 2006 newsletter from the Newt`s health care consulting company praised Romney`s Massachusetts health care law. A feature entitled "Newt`s Notes" read in part, "We agree entirely with Governor Romney and Massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100 percent insurance coverage for all Americans. The individual mandate requires those earn enough to afford insurance to purchase coverage and subsidies will be made available to those individuals who cannot afford it on their own. We agree strongly with this principle."

A Gingrich spokesman told "The Wall Street Journal" that the "Newt`s Notes" essay was not written by Newt himself.

GINGRICH: As people get to know more about Ron Paul who disowns 10 years of his onus letter, says he didn`t realize what was in it, had no idea what he was making money on, had no idea that it was racist, anti-Semitic called for the destruction of Israel, talked about a race war -- all this is a sudden shock to Ron Paul? There will come a morning people won`t take him as a serious person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Newt also responded to "The Wall Street Journal" report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: The difference between Romney and me is I have now concluded -- I`m prepared to say publicly, I concluded, just as the Heritage Foundation did, that idea didn`t work. Romney is still defending the mandate that he passed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Today, the Gingrich campaign also dealt with the fallout from failing to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for Virginia`s presidential primary.

Newt`s national campaign director wrote on Facebook on Saturday, "Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941. We have experienced an unexpected setback but in the end, we will stand victorious."

Mitt Romney responded today in New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: I think he compared that to was to Pearl Harbor? I think it`s more like Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory. So, I mean, you know, you`ve got to get it organized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: After New Hampshire, Romney headed to Iowa where he gave a speech attacking President Obama just after Romney received the endorsement of the "Boston Herald."

"We have referred in the past to the clown car nature of the Republican field as ego-driven candidates like Donald Trump flirted with the process only to be followed by the often engaging but deeply flawed candidacies of Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and finally, Newt Gingrich. There is no longer a parlor game -- this is no longer a parlor game. There is only one candidate in the Republican field with the integrity, the experience, the organizational strength and the intelligence to beat Barack Obama and that man is Mitt Romney."

O`DONNELL: Maggie, first of all, I just want to stipulate I did not write any of what I just read on this teleprompter from the beginning of this segment to right now was written by R.J. Fried on this staff. I`m disowning every word of it however true it may or may not be.

HABERMAN: You were just reading along, that`s good.

O`DONNELL: This thing -- this Newt thing of they think his newsletter says in "Newt`s Notes" that we love the individual mandate for 100 percent of Americans and their line today is: hey, Newt didn`t write that.

HABERMAN: Right, just called "Newt`s Notes" but he didn`t write it. It was an interesting litany as you were presenting it, especially over the last few days. They have had a very tough time.

The newsletter story was very damaging. That goes to the heart of what his whole case has been against Mitt Romney, which is that he`s a flip-flopper. He changes positions.

He is now taking what is essentially a weasely position of saying, you know, he didn`t write this. This appears, as you said, as "Newt`s Notes" and more importantly, very strongly endorses Romneycare. He then goes on in the interview to say, well, you know, the difference is I`ve said that was a bad thing and he has not said that`s a bad thing. So, essentially he`s saying Romney ought to take another position change.

A lot of Republicans incidentally do agree. They would like to see Mitt Romney disown Romneycare. The one thing Mitt Romney has been very adamant about is that he won`t do that because that would be another flip-flop.

Most importantly, Newt Gingrich has now spent an entire day completely off message. This is another wasted day heading into the Iowa caucuses where his negatives are rising because of this onslaught of negative ads that he is not responding to. He`s finally responding today going and breaking his pledge as you said of relentlessly positive.

This is the problem with making pledges like that. You have to stick to them and then you resign yourself to not fighting back. That`s what he has done.

O`DONNELL: Maggie, are the other candidates who are -- the non-Romney candidates who are attacking Gingrich, are they making a mistake by destroying Gingrich so that they just open up the road for Mitt Romney.

HABERMAN: No, I mean, I think you can make the argument either way. I do think that there is one case to be made. They need to knock votes away from Newt Gingrich because they`re more likely to get his votes than they are to get Mitt Romney`s.

But it is true that, you know, Mitt Romney is the man to beat at the moment. The other man to beat is Ron Paul, who has been, you know, coming under fire, as you know. He`s coming under fire from Newt Gingrich pretty strongly. That tells you where Paul is in this race right now.

The newsletter`s crisis for Ron Paul`s campaign is coming at a very bad time. It`s coming in the final week up to the caucuses.

This is not something they seem prepared to deal with, which is surprising because it came up in his 2007 run. They have known about it. They have not come up with a good answer for it.

There`s no way of saying I disavow it is going to satisfy people. Even if he didn`t write it, it is -- as Gingrich said -- a year`s worth of writings under the name the Ron Paul newsletter. It is hard to say that has nothing to do with me.

O`DONNELL: But how much of a problem is that stuff in a Republican presidential primary?

HABERMAN: I think it`s a problem because Ron Paul is not really that known a commodity in Iowa, even I think among hard-core Republicans and very conservative Republicans. I think a lot of that stuff goes beyond the pale.

And I think when you pair it with some of the things that Ron Paul has said in the more recent debates, where he was getting a lot of attention, one of the final debates was where he had a seven-minute soliloquy essentially, talking about Iran and how he didn`t believe in any kind of intervention there to prohibit Iran from getting nuclear weapons, that that would be a very good idea because he doesn`t agree with that foreign policy -- this is not the kind of thing that most Iowa caucusgoers know about Ron Paul. They know about his, you know, minimalist government positions. They know about the populist stands that he has taken. They know about him and the Federal Reserve.

These are all layers to Paul that they are not familiar with and it`s a problem.

O`DONNELL: And, Maggie, quickly before you go, I just want to be fair to you. Is there anything that has appeared in "Politico" with your name on it that you did not write and would like to disavow at this time?

HABERMAN: I`m all in, thank you. I stand by what I wrote.

O`DONNELL: Maggie Haberman of "Politico," the honest one among us -- thank you very much for joining us tonight.

HABERMAN: Thank you.

O`DONNELL: Coming up, finally a credit where credit is due. But way too late for the man who deserved it. The Hollywood blacklist gets a "Rewrite."

O`DONNELL: This school had no desks in it before we started the KIND Fund. Now each classroom has desks. And each one of these kids is now sitting at a desk for the first time. We just can`t thank you enough. And the kids thank you, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: According to my calendar, this was the night where we were supposed to be discussing what would have just been the Donald Trump moderated debate that turned out wasn`t going to happen, because the Republican candidates, as crazy as they are, were not crazy enough to join a Donald Trump moderated debate.

In order to divert attention from the colossal collapse of the idiotic idea of a Donald Trump debate, Donald Trump switched his party registration. His spokesperson says Trump registered in order to preserve his right to run as an independent after the finale of "The Apprentice" in May, if he is not satisfied with whom the candidate is. That`s a quote from Donald Trump`s spokesman.

The Trump lies will, of course, continue. That was his attempt to divert attention from the ridiculousness that did not happen tonight. One of the candidates who did shun Donald Trump, was one of the first to shun Trump, is Ron Paul, who now even Newt Gingrich says is too zany to be president. But is Ron Paul too zany for Iowa Republicans? That`s next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As people get to know more about Ron Paul, who disowns ten years of his own news letter, says he didn`t really realize what was in it, had no idea what he was making money on, had no idea that it was racist, anti-semitic, called for the destruction of Israel, talked about a race war -- all this is a sudden shock to Ron Paul? There will come a morning people won`t take him as a serious person.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Now if he were to get the Republican nomination --

E.J., the heat is on Ron Paul. I think the Republican candidates never thought they would actually have to take serious questions about if Ron Paul is the nominee.

E.J. DIONNE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": No, you know, and it`s true. I am up here in New Hampshire and I used to be -- last week, I was in Iowa. And in both states, Republicans are talking about Ron Paul along with Romney as having the biggest organizations and certainly a real shot at winning Iowa, and if not a shot at winning New Hampshire, a real shot at coming in second.

So they are petrified of Ron Paul. Newt Gingrich has especially good reason to be worried, because, you know, strong showings liking that from Ron Paul could knock him right out of the race.

O`DONNELL: E.J., if you`re in New Hampshire, I`m sure there is interest there about Ron Paul`s views of raw milk. I think we have some tape of him talking about that. Let`s listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Isn`t it sort of strange that we live in a country today where if you choose to buy raw milk, you`re inhibited by the federal government to buy and drink raw milk. I mean, I`m all for raw milk. I think you should make your own choice on whether you drink raw milk or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: E.J, I`ve never had the pleasure of raw milk. I do know people who grew up on farms and milked the cows and got the first taste of raw milk. And they say it`s pretty great. But the let`s say that was one of the choices in the average grocery store in America, there would be a few problems here and there with the quality of that over time.

DIONNE: You know, I think that Ron Paul may be useful even to people who fundamentally disagree with him, because everyone says boy, I can`t stand government. Let`s get government out of everything. Let`s just get rid of the Food and Drug Administration, right? Let`s sell anything that anybody claims does something good for you, even if it`s got poison in it. Let`s sell food even if it causes outbreaks of all kinds of troubles.

I mean, even with regulation, you get that. But with regulation, you get a lot less of that. And so I think if Ron Paul got the Republican nomination, we would finally have the fundamental debate about the role of government that we need to have as a country. And I don`t think a majority would end up on Ron Paul`s side.

O`DONNELL: He told Brian Williams in the debate that Brian moderated that yeah, he doesn`t think we need any auto safety regulations, that the consumer, you and I, would just know which cars are safe, and we would buy the safest cars, and the market would solve that, showing he has no understanding of the history of how the automobile industry did nothing for safety until Ralph Nader forced them to. And Ralph Nader forced the government, in effect, to force the auto industry to do that.

DIONNE: Right. You know, this is the old libertarian position, that the market will take care of it. Well, maybe so, but only after a lot of people get killed in a lot of auto accidents. And then people would stop buying a particular car. The other thing about this libertarian paradise is they say oh, well let people sue each other. Do they honestly think that the courts handling tens of thousands of cases about auto safety or getting poisoned by bad food -- do they think that`s more efficient than regulation?

I think that is what Ron Paul is arguing.

O`DONNELL: MSNBC contributor E.J. Dionne, thank you very much for joining me tonight from New Hampshire. You might want to the try the raw milk.

DIONNE: I`ll look around for it. I bet I can find it somewhere.

O`DONNELL: Thanks, E.J.

DIONNE: Take care.

O`DONNELL: Coming up, your gifts to the children of Malawi as this Christmas weekend slows down, the donations did not slow down. You gave even more. That`s coming up.

And the film that launched Audrey Hepburn`s career finally gets another credit, an official credit, A credit it richly deserves. "Roman Holiday" gets a new written by credit. That`s in the Rewrite.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROSS TALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Oscar winners Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in the 1953 film classic "Roman Holiday". Miss Hepburn took home the Oscar for best actress in that role. And now, 58 years later, the screen writers` union, the Writers Guild of America, has Rewritten the official writing credits on that movie, finally officially recognizing the contribution of Dalton Trumbo to the writing team that wrote "Roman Holiday".

In 1947, Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted as part of the Hollywood Ten, a group of writers and directors who were accused of being communist sympathizers. The men were brought before the House of Representatives` Committee on Un-American Activities.

Dalton Trumbo, like the other nine, refused to cooperate with the committee. Here the ten men stand with their attorneys in January of 1948, just before they were arraigned for contempt of Congress. Dalton Trumbo was convicted and served 11 months in prison.

After that, it became impossible for Dalton Trumbo to work for the studios as a credited screen writer. Trumbo wrote the story for "Roman Holiday" while in exile in Mexico. His friends and writing partner, Ian McClellan Hunter (ph), acted as the front man for the team, taking the official writing credit and secretly sharing the payment with Trumbo. Ian McClellan Hunter himself was later blacklisted.

In 1992, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to add Trumbo`s name to the writing credits of "Roman Holiday". The Academy then recognized that the film was really written by Dalton Trumbo and his partner, Ian McClellan Hunter, along with John Diten (ph). Better late than never, but it was too late for Dalton Trumbo to enjoy. He died 16 years earlier, in 1976.

The sons of the writing partners Trumbo and McClellan eventually became members of the Writers Guild themselves, and eventually pursued a correction in the Writers Guild`s official writing credits of "Roman Holiday". It is the Writer`s Guild credits that the industry considers the official history of screen writing.

Chris Kaiser, president of the Writers Guild of America West -- the president, said "it`s not in our power to erase the mistakes or the suffering of the past, but we can make amends. We can pledge not to the fall prey again to the dangerous power of fear or to the impulse to censor, even if that pledge is only a hope. And in the end, we can give credit where credit is due. In acknowledging the contributions of Dalton Trumbo, Ian McClellan Hunter and John Diten to the writing of "Roman Holiday," the WGA has not undone the hurt. But it has, at last and at least, told the truth."

That fact is a tribute to the friendship of two fathers and then two sons, and to a thing we can hold on to, which is that friendship was stronger than and outlived the hate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDREY HEPBURN, ACTRESS: I have to say good-bye. I can`t think of any words.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don`t try.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: On last Thursday`s show, Melissa Harris-Perry introduced you to this guy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVAN PUSCHAK, MADE VIDEO FOR KIND FUND: I use the word aggressively generous. It is -- the comments just on the video have been like donated. They just say donate or they say, you know, I just took a kid off the floor in Malawi. To know that you could possibly kind of do -- make that effect in the world by making a video is truly incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: That`s Evan Puschak, who created a Project for Awesome Video about the KIND Fund, Kids in Need of Desks. Evan`s video was seen by over 200,000 viewers on Youtube, and helped push us over the million dollar mark in how much we`ve raised since we began reminding you almost two weeks ago of our partnership between MSNBC and UNICEF to deliver desks to African schools.

I met Evan this afternoon here in Los Angeles and was able to thank him for his work. His brilliant video was entered in the Project For Awesome, which has now raised 14,269 dollars for the KIND Fund. And that 14,000 is in addition to the 142,116 dollars that we have raised since Friday afternoon, when I last discussed the KIND Fund on MSNBC, on Alex Wagner`s show.

I promised Alex then that I would credit her with whatever we raised between then and now. So the Alex Wagner effect is now officially 142,116 dollars. Thanks, Alex.

That brought us to a KIND Fund total since we started the KIND Fund last year of 3,494,992 dollars. Kathleen Kraus (ph) posted this had on her Facebook wall: "this is my second year donating. I bought two desks, which would seat my family. We were so happy to see your success with this project. And thanks for including your daughter in the video. I have two daughters myself."

And Kim Trebiche posted this: "I gave a gift of a desk in my mother`s name, who is a retired school teacher. Lawrence, you need to promote this all year long."

Kim, you`re absolutely right. We do tend to promote it much more heavily around the Christmas season because the spirit of giving is in the air. And because these gifts do make perfect Christmas and Hanukah gifts, especially for people on your list that already seem to have everything or just are really tough to pick something out for. But they also make great Valentines. They make great birthday presents anytime of year.

And throughout the year, UNICEF will send an e card when you go to TheLastWordDesks.MSNBC.com or call 1-800-4-KIDS to donate a desk. They will send an e-card to the recipient of your choice acknowledging that gift in their name.

Teresa Bucherati Isaacs (ph) wrote this: "every year in December, I have extra money that would have gone to buying my mother her birthday gift. It`s been ten years that she`s passed. And this year, I bought a desk in her honor. After raising five kids, one with special needs, she taught herself computer skills and went to work in a school helping kids. It`s a great wait to honor her."

And we`re very glad that Danny Glover has taken notice of the KIND Fund. He Tweeted this: "great job to UNICEF and Lawrence O`Donnell of MSNBC for their work with the KIND Fund providing decks to kids in Malawi and adding work for the community."

Everyone at THE LAST WORD is thrilled that Danny Glover is watching the show. And he`s right about desks providing work in Malawi. The desks are made at factories in Malawi using African materials. And so before providing a proper place for kids to sit in classrooms, these desks are providing jobs to workers in Malawi who can then reliably feed their families.

Sheila Felwel (ph) sent this e-mail to THE LAST WORD: "I grew up in Zambia, and know the courageous spirit of the people that you are trying to help. I appreciate the fact that this is not just a handout, but an opportunity for the people who work together to help each other. Giving the resources to create the jobs allows the workers to become productive and contributing members of the community. It also allows the people involved to experience a genuine feeling of self-worth. For the children, it is an opportunity that they will all seize. My husband and I have donated four desks again this year and will continue to keep this program as our charitable contribution."

And finally, there was this from David Sappyer (ph), "watched your video today with my son Joe. I always try to instill in my two boys just how well we have it and how important it is to keep our own disappointments in perspective, that we have a responsibility to help others who are far less fortunate than we are. Thank you for helping me reach my son. He said we should give whatever we could afford. We gave five desks."

David, as parents, we`re always looking for those teachable moments for our children. And you just sent five desks into a Malawi classroom where they will be used for years by two or three students at a time. Dozens and dozens and dozens of students will be given a better chance to connect to the teachable moments that occur in those classrooms.

Thanks to you and thanks to everyone else who has contributed to the KIND Fund.

Tax tip, there are four days left to make a tax deductible contribution for this year, if you have anything left to give or if you`re looking for an extra deduction. To Evan Puschak and Danny Glover and everyone else who has Tweeted about the KIND Fund or spread the word in any way, and especially -- especially to those of you who have told me you simply can`t afford to make a donation now, but you`ve done everything you can do to spread the word, I can never thank you enough.

END

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